The Darkness
Shadow Mario, most commonly referred to as The Darkness, is a substance created out of pure evil by Nox Decious. Nox Decious created the substance by using an ancient magic spell, called El Nox de la Chateu, which translates to The Darkness of the Shadow. The Darkness attached The Stone of Righteousness to Decious' soul, until they were seperated by the Nether Saber in Episode 30 - The Most Epic Battle EVER. After briefly possessing Mario, the Darkness took Mario's energy and combined it with Decious's power that it absorbed to take on the physical shape of it's most powerful host, Mario. While the wiki states that this character was original, the character bears a canny resemblance to the Super Mario Sunshine game character, Shadow Mario, although there are many differences. History When Merlin's evil brother Nox Decious created the Stone of Righteousness, he wanted to fuse it with his body so it would not be taken from him. He decided to use a most ancient magic:'' "El Nox de la Chateu", which translated as "The Darkness of The Shadow". This created a dark substance, known as The Darkness, which fused itself and the Truth Stone directly to Nox's soul. The Darkness then fed on Decious' soul for countless generations, so it grew to know it's host's power. When Nox was killed, The Darkness needed a new body to attach itself to, and the closest person was Mario. It possesed Mario in a form of rage, making him attack Wario. The Darkness then combined the energy it took from Decious with the energy it took from Mario and left him. The Darkness left Mario weak, but it had enough power to sustain itself and take physical form. The Darkness then took on the form of it's most powerful host: Mario. Merlin, however, was unaware that Mario was The Darkness's most powerful host; and assumed that it would take the form of his brother Nox Decious. Season Three The Darkness really never had much of a role in Season Three as Wario was the main antagonist. Season Three only shows how The Darkness was formed and was used for foreshadowing the Stupid Mario Bros. Movie. He did, however, try to convince Waluigi to kill Mario like he did Wario, but fails, as Waluigi is smarter and more reasonable than Wario. In Episode 37, The Darkness obtains Nox's hidden Black Widow Blade from The Orchard, which Decious planned to use to deal the killing blow to Mario in Episode 30. In Episode 45, Nox Decious is revealed to be The Darknesses master. The Movie The Darkness was the main antagonist of the Stupid Mario Bros. Movie. He is doing all of Nox Decious's bidding to try and get Nox's soul within the vessel, who is later revealed as Luigi. In Act II Part 1, The Darkness kills Link by imapling him with the Black Widow Blade. In Act II Part 3 he almost kills Snake but Luigi defends him. The Darkness kicks Luigi down but instead of killing him he decides to let Decious possess Luigi, making him Mr. L. Soon after, it is revealed that The Darkness only got Nox's soul into Luigi just so he could kill him and rule the world himself. Soon after, Darkness fights Wario. In the end, Shadow Mario sticks the Black Widow Blade through Wario, and thinks he is dead. The Darkness thinks that Wario doesn't have the Stone of Righteousness after all, and wonders where it is. Suddenly, The Darkness stops in his tracks and sentance and finds that the The Nether Saber has been thrown through his back by Wario; who was faking his death. The Darkness laments having been cut off from having more fun before laughing maniacally and presumably dying. Later, Wario retrieves the Black Widow Blade and puts it in his pocket. He then goes to The Darknesses dead body and tells him to rest in hell. Unfortunately, it is revealed that only a specific counter-curse can destroy The Darkness in an absolute sense; Waluigi was supposed to give Wario the means to perform this curse, but forgot. The Darkness comes back to life and, believing that Mario is still dead, casts off his hat and swears revenge on Wario, joyously shouting, "''I'm back!" In Act II Part 6 however, Wario returns to battle the Darkness one more time. After an initial struggle, Wario pins The Darkness to the ground, says the counter curse, and finally kills him. Operation: Blind Storm Shadow Mario plays a major role within Operation: Blind Storm. His hat (which he left behind in Act II Part 5 to separate himself from Mario) is found by Ness and Solid Snake. When Ness puts the hat on briefly, the last remnants of Shadow Mario's energy takes control of Ness. Shadow Mario uses Ness to lead Snake to the energy source. Ness, still being controlled by Shadow Mario, tells Snake to destroy it, while Wario tells him otherwise. Since Ness is psychic, Shadow Mario knew they'd trust him over Wario and Snake destroys the beacon. Shadow Mario then speaks to the entire group, telling them what the beacon is and that they're now powerless. Because of this, Shadow Mario also seemingly ceases to exist because he is nothing but power. Season 4 Merlin gave a riddle to Wario before he vanished: When brightest, it's darkest. When darkest, it's gone. When gone forever, so are you. Mario realized at the end of his battle with Blaire that this was a metaphor for his shadow: The Darkness, who had regenerated soon after Mario and the others gained back their powers. The Darkness shows himself, now with red hair and a new leather duster. The Darkness reveals that Blaire worked for him. Furious that Blaire disobeyed his orders and attempted to become stronger then him, he freezes Blaire and kills him with a beamsword similar to the Black Widow Blade, except he created it. He called for Mario to come forth so he could explain some things to him. The Darkness explains that he found Blaire as a kid and told him where to find Liquid and Ken, he revealed Nox Decious is alive, Ganondorf's lettter was no joke, he had teamed up with Bowser and now the three will be the main villains of Season 5. Darkness then leaves to gather up his own army if all else fails. Personality The Darkness is completely insane, sadistic, and evil. He is also determined to differentiate himself from the real Mario, often referring to the latter simply as "him" in a derisive manner. A typical sign of his insanity is that he considers the horrible things he could have done as "fun". While The Darkness is completely evil he does have a small amount of mercy as he let Ness go after Ness tried to kill him. He is also extremely arrogant. Abilities As his physical body was created from the combined energy of Mario and Nox Decious, the Darkness has their combined power at its disposal. It mostly displays Mario's abilities, such as throwing fireballs, and is also able to teleport and turn invisible like Nox Decious. Because both Mario and Decious are both skilled with a beam sword, the Darkness demonstrates great skill himself. The Darkness is actually mortal, which it explains in Episode 60; it said that the killing blow that Wario gave it would have destroyed it, but it was able to survive because it stored its power in its hat. Attire Shadow Mario wears black overalls, a long sleeve black shirt underneath, black gloves, black boots with small chains on them, a black trenchcoat with some chains on it, and black circles around his eyes. Shadow Mario also has black hair and always carries the Black Widow Blade around with him in a pocket in its overalls. It also has a black version of Mario's hat, which is worn until Act II Part 5. In his reappearance near the end of Season Four, Shadow Mario looks largely the same, though its trenchcoat is now leather, its circles around its eyes are smaller, and it has red hair. Trivia *Rich Alvarez didn't expect Shadow Mario to be so popular with the fans. "I'm actually really surprised at how much people liked The Darkness. The entire time I was playing the character I was always worried that I was doing it wrong and/or bad... I thought he would come off too stupid." *Shadow Mario is never referred to as such on-screen; the other characters only refer to it as "the Darkness." However, Rich Alvarez has referred to it as "Shadow Mario" at one point. *The two main inspirations for the Shadow Mario character are Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight and Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. *Unlike in Super Mario Sunshine, Shadow Mario is not Bowser Jr . *Shadow Mario is actually not human nor is it alive really, since it is only a substance that took on the form of Mario. In Act II Part 6, however, Wario says the counter curse "Obscurem Absentis Humanis," which is Latin for "Darkness be gone and become human." However, the Darkness revealed that it was actually mortal the entire time and was able to survive Wario's killing blows because it stored its power in its hat. Category:Characters Category:Season Three Category:The Movie Category:Operation: Blind Storm Category:Villains Category:Season Four